Homeless people have been left to suffer in hotels that have been described as "hellholes" after Glasgow City Council failed to safeguard them.
The Rennie Mackintosh Station Hotel and and Alexander Thomson Hotel in Glasgow city centre were the subject of many complaints over their standard of hygiene with several residents claiming the living conditions were inhumane.
Now, the council has admitted to breaching the Unsuitable Accommodation Order more than 2,000 times in a year - up around tenfold on previous figures, the Daily Record reports.
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The order was brought in to stop councils simply putting people in digs like B&Bs and cheap hotels - which are deemed unfit for long term living. But a shocking lack of supply has meant councils are simply disregarding the law, meaning thousands of people are languishing in hotels.
Housing campaigners say Scotland is in a state of emergency.
Shelter Scotland Director Alison Watson said: “Until the Scottish Government provide the necessary investment, the housing emergency in Scotland will get worse not better.
“The fact that the unsuitable accommodation order is being breached with such alarming regularity in Scotland’s largest city is yet another symptom of a broken housing system which is inflicting misery on communities across the country. Shelter Scotland recognises that there will always be a need for some temporary accommodation but there is currently a significant over reliance which is unacceptable, especially when the accommodation used falls for of the required standards.”
Watson said children are being failed in such a way that it can damage their formative years. She said: “Life in temporary accommodation can be a nightmare, particularly for the thousands of children with nowhere safe and permanent to call home.
“Ultimately the only viable long term solution is to buy and build more social homes while also ensuring that local authorities have the funding they need to deliver proper homelessness services.”
From May 2020 the Homeless Persons (Unsuitable Accommodation) (Scotland) Order 2014 was applied to all homeless people. The legislation previously only applied to households with children or pregnant women.
Each breach could leave local authorities open to claims for damages by families who are sold short. The explosion in breaches by Glasgow City Council comes after it was revealed that 110 took place in the six months up to September in 2020. That figure is around a tenth of the breach rate of 2,013 for an 11 month snapshot in 2022.
Campaigner Sean Clerkin, of the Scottish Tenants Organisation, made the Freedom of Information request that revealed the huge numbers. The council admitted 2,013 breaches of the UAO and said 6,634 were in temporary accommodation in the city as of October last year. Of them, 2,677 were children.
He said: “It is a scandal that there have been 2,013 breaches of the Unsuitable Accommodation Order by Glasgow City Council this year. Homeless people have been put in squalid and substandard accommodation and have to pay sky high charges of between £159 to £400 a week for this, with private providers making huge profits out of their misery.”
Clerkin insists Glasgow City Council leader should take responsibility for the scandal, adding: “With 6,636 people stuck in this often unsuitable temporary accommodation - and with 2677 of them being children - represents a major policy failure by Glasgow City Council.
“This has to stop with many more social rented homes being built and empty homes should be retrofitted to house these homeless people and families in permanent affordable tenancies. The proposed cut of £215 million in next year’s budget for housing by the Scottish Government has to be reversed for if not there will be a tsunami of homelessness during this cost of living crisis.”
In February last year eight councils reported breaching the Unsuitable Accommodation Order 375 times. With 195 breaches, Fife Council broke the law the most times, followed by Glasgow City Council, which reported 110 breaches.
The Scottish government warned then that the figures should be treated with caution as there have been reporting inconsistencies due to the recent extension of the legislation and COVID-19 exemptions. Last month Glasgow City Council admitted there were still more than 600 people in hotel or B&B rooms.
The Rennie Mackintosh Station Hotel and and Alexander Thomson Hotel, both owned by RMG Hotels, were meant to be temporary but the stays ended up going on for long terms.
Police Scotland tool more than 1,000 calls relating to alleged crimes and drug abuse at the Rennie Mackintosh Station Hotel, on Union Street, and seven people have died there since 2020.
At the nearby Alexander Thomson on Argyle Street there were 10 fatalities in 2020 alone.
A Glasgow City Council spokesperson said: “During the public health emergency we saw an increase in the numbers of households seeking homelessness assistance. 20,000 were offered emergency accommodation in the first 18 months alone - which led to an increase in the numbers of households in emergency accommodation.
“We are working with partners and housing associations to help people sustain their homes whilst continuing to meet demand for emergency accommodation and meeting our statutory duties. We are committed to ending the use of bed of breakfast type accommodation and are working with partners through our Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan to meet this ambition."
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We are providing local authorities with £52.5 million for their rapid rehousing transition plans to ensure people are given a settled place to live as soon as appropriate, and our latest annual progress report shows that the number of people sleeping rough in Scotland continues to fall.
“Scotland already has stronger housing rights for people experiencing homelessness than elsewhere in the UK. We intend to build on this foundation by introducing new legislation to prevent homelessness happening in the first place, including new duties on public bodies to 'Ask and Act' and the ability for local authorities to provide support earlier.”
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